Read a full match report of the Championshipip game between Leicester city and
Cardiff City at the King Power Stadium on Saturday Dec 22, 2012.

There is a certain lustre associated with being top of the Championship at Christmas. Perhaps because, for eight of the last ten seasons, the team in that position has gone on to be promoted as the present incumbents, Cardiff, will have noted.

“It was a great advert for the Championship,” said victorious Cardiff manager Malky Mackay. “There were two teams playing very attractive football at a hell of a tempo. The pace of the game was unbelievable.”

Amongst all the contenders at the season’s halfway point, the respective infrastructures of Leicester and Cardiff would suggest that they would be well-equipped for the Premier League if they can reach it, as both clubs have benefited from the funding of their South-East Asian owners.

David Nugent, going in search of his 100th league goal, brought the game’s first significant action as he forced David Marshall into a smart save after fifteen minutes which lead to a flurry of activity.

Marshall again saved, superbly, from Wes Morgan’s thumping header following a corner but could only watch Andy King’s shot curl past him and back off the post as the Foxes dominated the opening stages.

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Should Leicester return to the top flight, one player who may thrive is Anthony Knockaert. The French Under-21 midfielder, who closely resembles Samir Nasri in appearance and style of play, twice brought further acrobatics out of Marshall with superbly-struck long range thunderbolts.

The Foxes, who boast the meanest defence in the Championship, were untroubled by the league-leaders until the two Craigs, Conway and Bellamy, combined for the latter to a produce a finish of Premier League calibre as he dropped off his marker and swept home a first time shot to hand Cardiff an undeserved lead.

“It was a sucker-punch,” said misanthropic Leicester manager Nigel Pearson of Bellamy’s goal.

The Foxes, however, refused to be cowed. Still they poured forward, attacking with purpose, and Jamie Vardy almost sent the sides in level, only for his glanced header to come back of the crossbar.

Nugent again came close to his landmark but saw his header cleared off the line by Conway. Mackay will have been pleased with the way his side defended here whilst still proving a threat on the break.

“Something that shines through in our group is a lack of ego,” said Mackay. “I’m looking at the way Craig Bellamy is closing people down in the last five minutes. He (Bellamy) said that the team spirit here is one of the best he has known.”

Shirt sponsorship and advertising hoardings bombarded visitors to the King Power

Stadium with invitations to visit Asia. Sitting in rain of biblical proportions, watching their team outplay but not outwit Cardiff, it must have been a sorely tempting offer for Leicester’s supporters.